Typically, developers write software applications to allow for many degrees of freedom in their configuration. By way of example, these developers are able to leverage these degrees of freedoms by establishing a software application that operates within specific constraints of a particular platform that is provided to support the software application. Thus, these freedoms associated with the software application enable the software application to operate in cooperation with the platform.
In one instance, this configuration of software application may be employed by application-service providers who develop the software application to operate on a platform that is remotely accessible via the Internet. In this instance, the platform executes the software program in such a way that users may remotely manipulate files using the software application. Accordingly, the platform is adapted to establish underlying elements of the software application running thereon to accommodate a current load of the remote usage. The degrees of freedom in the software application allow for scaling up or down these underlying elements and for managing the coordination therebetween. However, because the platform includes a variety of hardware components that are dispersed throughout a data center, the coordination between the underlying elements may be difficult as each element may require a distinct configuration. For instance, the configuration for one of the underlying elements may vary from another underlying element placed on a separate machine. This variation may result from a number of factors, such as a difference in the location of resources of the platform that is required to support operation of the software application.
Current solutions to configure the underlying elements of the software application rely on curators of the platform to manually set up the underlying elements to properly interact with the hardware component on which it is placed. These ad hoc solutions are labor-intensive and error-prone. Further, these shortcomings of manual involvement are exaggerated when the platform is expansive in size, comprising a multitude of interconnected hardware components, that support the operation of a multitude of software applications.